Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and the evacuation procedure was noted.

There were no interests declared.

The planning protocol was noted.

Consideration was given to a report on planning application 25/0649/FUL - North And South Site, Stor Generating Plant, Seal Sands Link Road, Billingham - Erection of 2no external structures around existing power plant enclosure and associated works.

Planning permission was sought for the erection of two external structures around the existing power plans at Saltholme. 

The plants had their permits suspended until the noise issues were resolved and were non-operational.  The proposed structures were to reduce the noise levels that were causing disturbance to nearby residents in Cowpen Bewley Village.

The application had been considered by the Environmental Health Team and no objections had been raised.  The Environment Agency had confirmed that whilst they were considering the permit information, they were confident that the measures would resolve the issues with noise.  As detailed in the report it could not be properly measured or assessed until the applicant was allowed to implement the scheme as applied for and thereafter the noise predictions could be validated. The facility was already constructed, and it was essential that the mitigation work was undertaken.

The scheme had been considered in full in terms of visual impacts and other wider implications and it was considered that there were no adverse impacts that would warrant refusal of the application.

The application was recommended for approval with conditions as detailed within the report.

For information and to assist members a Glossary of Acoustic terms was attached to the report.

With regard to planning policy where an adopted or approved development plan contained relevant policies, Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 required that an application for planning permissions should be determined in accordance with the Development Plan(s) for the area, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.  In this case the relevant Development Plan was the Stockton on Tees Borough Council Local Plan 2019.

Section 143 of the Localism Act came into force on the 15 January 2012 and required the Local Planning Authority to take local finance considerations into account, this section s70(2) Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as amended requires in dealing with such an application the authority should have regard to a) the provisions of the development plan, so far as material to the application, b) any local finance considerations, so far as material to the application and c) any other material considerations.

Consultees were notified and the comments that had been received were detailed within the report.

With regard to consultation neighbours had been notified and the application was advertised on site.  The comments that had been received were detailed within the report.

Overall, it was considered that the proposed scheme would not have an adverse impact on the area and would resolve the noise issues currently experienced by residents and the benefits of the proposed intervention were noted.

It was recommended that the application be approved with conditions for the reasons specified above.

The applicant attended the meeting and was given the opportunity to make representation. His comments could be  ...  view the full minutes text for item P/19/25

Consideration was given to a report on planning application 24/2109/RET - 4 Alford Lane, Stockton-on-Tees, TS19 0QP - Retrospective application for the change of use of existing detached garage to aesthetics business.

Planning permission was sought on a retrospective basis for the change of use of the detached outbuilding to an aesthetics business. According to the supporting statement, services include dermal fillers, anti-wrinkle treatments, skin facials, vitamin injections, fat dissolving, skin analysis/consultations, skin tag removal and PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) treatments. The business operates Monday – Friday 9am – 2:30pm and Saturdays 10am – 4pm, by appointment only.

The application had generated a total of 31no letters of objection and 19no letters of support following neighbour consultations. No objections had been raised by statutory consultees.

The application site related to a detached outbuilding, a former garage, within the rear garden of 4 Alford Lane, which was within a residential estate of Stockton. The application had been assessed in full, and it was considered that the development did not result in any significant conflict with the policies of the Local Plan or relevant chapters of the NPPF and there were no technical reasons why the proposed scheme was deemed to be unacceptable in planning terms in which to justify refusal of the application.

In accordance with the Councils scheme of delegation, the application would be determined by Planning Committee due to the number of objections received to the proposed development.

Consultees had been notified and the comments that had been received were detailed within the report.

With regard to consultation neighbours had been notified and 31no. letters of objection were received which included 11no proforma letters and 13no proforma letters which contained additional comments. The comments that had been received were summarised within the report.

With regard to planning policy where an adopted or approved development plan contained relevant policies, Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 required that an application for planning permissions should be determined in accordance with the Development Plan(s) for the area, unless material considerations indicated otherwise.  In this case the relevant Development Plan was the Stockton on Tees Borough Council Local Plan 2019.

Section 143 of the Localism Act came into force on the 15 January 2012 and required the Local Planning Authority to take local finance considerations into account, this section s70(2) Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as amended required in dealing with such an application the authority should have regard to a) the provisions of the development plan, so far as material to the application, b) any local finance considerations, so far as material to the application and c) any other material considerations.

The planning policies that were to be considered to be relevant to the consideration of the application were detailed within the report.

In view of the assessment above, it was considered that the proposed development would not result in any significant conflict with the policies contained within the Stockon on Tees Local Plan or the relevant chapters of  ...  view the full minutes text for item P/20/25

Consideration was given to a report on planning application 23/1111/COU - 9 Portchester Close, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 5LQ - Change of use from residential (C3) to mixed use Commercial and Residential to allow for home business.

The application related to No.9 Portchester Close, which was a substantial two storey detached residential dwelling located within an established residential area of Ingleby Barwick.

Planning permission was sought for the change of use of part of No.9 Portchester Close to be used for the sale of firearms and ammunition.  The change of use would allow for a designated reception room to be used as a secured sales area. The rest of the property would remain as a residential dwelling.

Sales of firearms would be by pre-arranged appointment only to persons approved by the Police Licensing Authority, and not to the general public. Customers would have to provide evidence of membership of shooting clubs, or being holders of Firearm or Shotgun Certificates. The business would operate only between the hours of 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday, with only one customer visiting the property at any one time, and it was anticipated that there would be a maximum of 2-3 customers per day.

The property benefits from secure storage for firearms and ammunition, and the exterior of the host property was covered by security cameras and had a 24 hour a day monitored alarm system. There were no external alterations proposed to the property, and the business would not have any external signage or indication of the type of business which would operate from the premises.

Following the consultation process there had been 52no letters of objection received. The objections related to highway issues including increase in the volume of traffic and off-street parking, public safety, anti-social behaviour/crime, unsuitable location for such a commercial use, and impact on residential amenity by way of noise disturbance and impact on privacy. There had also been 29no letters of support received.

Given the scale of the proposed business, which would operate by pre-arranged appointment only to persons approved by the Police Licensing Authority, and not to the general public, during daytime hours with only one customer visiting at any one time and a maximum of 3 appointments per day, the proposal was not considered to have a significant adverse impact on centre locations.

Due to the measures required to make the business safe, the pre-conceptions and connotations attached to the nature of the business proposed and the vagueness of how the business would operate, had, in the opinion of the Local Planning Authority, caused a heightened sense of fear of crime regarding the proposal which completely undermined the residential character of the area and the perception of safety for the surrounding neighbouring residents, to their detriment. The proposal was not considered to result in a significant impact on highway safety due to the off-street parking provided on the Site.

The proposed development would therefore be contrary to Local Plan Policy SD8(3) and National Planning Policies 96(b)  ...  view the full minutes text for item P/21/25

Consideration was given to a report on Planning Compliance Performance - Quarterly Update. This was the latest quarter report (Quarter 1, 2025/26). 

The Stockton-on-Tees Local Enforcement Plan (LEP) was approved at planning committee in September 2024 and became ‘live’ on the 1st November 2024 and this report provided the latest quarterly report.

As part of the LEP, service targets were introduced which were;

• 70% of enforcement case closed where no breach identified within 20 working days.

• 60% of enforcement requests receiving an initial response, for example no breach of control identified or further investigation to be undertaken, within 10 working days.

• 60% of planning enforcement cases, where the case actions are determined within the established priority timescales.

An attachment to the report provided members with a snapshot of the over the last quarter’s performance for the planning compliance function. Some narrative and explanation of current performance and trends was also detailed within the report.

Performance against the internal performance standards remained high with the relevant thresholds being exceeded in the majority of cases. Overall 95% of all the number of cases in the last quarter had had case actions determined within the identified priority period.

A table within the report detailed that over the last quarter the number of cases received had increased. However, the overall time to process cases had reduced with a number of cases resulting in enforcement notices being served on six properties with assistance being provided from the Council’s Legal Services team.

Alongside the level of caseload, a new staff member had been integrated into the planning compliance team which had involved increased time pressures to provide the associated training. Nevertheless, the processes introduced to both manage and maintain momentum on compliance cases were working well as demonstrated within the performance figures. 

Additionally, following the serving of notices in quarter 3 of 24/25, two notices had been fully complied with and the associated breaches of control had been addressed.

For completeness, the total number of unresolved cases equated to 205, with 76 cases being historic cases received before the introduction of the Local Enforcement Plan.

The next quarterly update would be quarter 2 of 2025/26 (July -September), which was anticipated being reported in October 2025.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The appeals were noted.